Woody Baird, AP, June 18, 2009
Steve Cohen, a two-term white congressman from a mostly black House district, faces a bruising Democratic primary next year and race again will likely be at the center of the campaign.
Willie Herenton, the first elected black mayor of Memphis, recently filed with the Federal Election Commission to run for Cohen’s 9th District House seat. Cohen has shrugged off black challengers before, but none with the political savvy and combative style of the 6-foot-6 mayor—a former Golden Gloves boxer who doesn’t shrink easily from a fight.
Now mayor longer than any predecessor, Herenton, 69, first won office in 1992 by beating a popular white incumbent by 142 votes in one of the closest mayoral elections in Memphis history. He has faced little serious re-election opposition since and is now in his fifth four-year term.
Cohen, 60, is one of just two white members of Congress representing predominantly black districts and the only one to follow an African-American into office. He is the first white congressman from Memphis since 1974 and the only Jewish member of Tennessee’s congressional delegation.
Voters in the August 2010 Democratic primary will face a sensitive question that has dogged Cohen since his first House election in 2006: Should Tennessee’s only majority black district have a black representative in Washington?
“I think all along, Steve Cohen has known that’s his vulnerability,” said political scientist Marcus Pohlmann at Rhodes College of Memphis. “It’s not so much that he’s disliked because he’s white, but he’s running in a district that was created to elect an African-American.”
In the 9th District, which is 60 percent black and 35 percent white, the Democratic primary is tantamount to election. No Republican has been elected since 1972.
In 2006, Cohen led a 15-candidate Democratic primary with 31 percent of the vote, with the four top black candidates combining for 57 percent. In the 2008 primary, he trounced a black lawyer who campaigned heavily on race and produced a TV ad featuring a picture of Cohen and a photo of a hooded Ku Klux Klansman. Cohen breezed through the general elections with only weak Republican and independent opposition.
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Original article
(Posted on June 18, 2009)
Comments
“Should Tennessee’s only majority black district have a black representative in Washington?”
I don’t know. Try this: Should a majority white country have a black president in Washington?
As always, replace “white” with “black”, and “African-American” with “European-American”, and watch the moral outrage come down from all sides.
If Cohen could have been toppled, it would have happened last year. I think he has way too much name recognition, and he is adequately (in fact very) liberal.
Being a good liberal democrat, I’m sure that Rep. Cohen, as a staunch believer in, and supporter of, affirmative action, will not mind relinquishing his seat to a black, no matter what his qualifications may or may not consist of.
Cohen is a real panderer and I’ll laugh my rear off if he gets “dispossessed.” I believe he’s the one that started the apology for slavery thing.
“I don’t know. Try this: Should a majority white country have a black president in Washington?”
No majority white country has a black president. One has a half-black president.
As a former Memphian I wish they could both lose. But Herenton is immensely popular among the Memfricans and would win even if he had horns and a spiked tail - which I strongly suspect!
Being a good liberal democrat, I’m sure that Rep. Cohen, as a staunch believer in, and supporter of, affirmative action, will not mind relinquishing his seat to a black, no matter what his qualifications may or may not consist of.
If Cohen could have been toppled, it would have happened last year. I think he has way too much name recognition, and he is adequately (in fact very) liberal.
BUT!! he is not black, and now, with a black president SKIP the psychic predicts……a black will replace Cohen this coming election and the usual scandals will follow.
Creating a Congressional District to get more Blacks elected to Congress used to be called, “Gerrymandering”. It was illegal.
So, why are they getting away with this, and so brazen to do it out in public, instead of doing so in a smoke-filled Political Hall?
My congressional district MO-5th is 60% white, and yet Emanuel Cleaver is my congressman. Is it OK for me to feel ill at ease too? What’s funny is that the district will become even whiter in about 18 months as it expands into the more rural and suburban areas. It is nowhere near as urban as when Alan Wheat was in Congress.
Question Diversity:
Have you heard anything about Missouri losing a congressional seat? If so, I’m wondering who will get the axe. I heard that it could possibly be the 9th and that it would be merged with the 6th to form a huge district comprising all of northern Missouri. That’s just a rumor though. Frankly, I’d love to see Carnahan and Clay duke it out in the primary. Yeeahhh, I know! But I can always dream, can’t I?
exkc:
It’s pretty much a given. I’m surprised that MO didn’t lose a seat after the 2000 census; as a matter of fact, Indiana’s population growth rate 1990 to 2000 was smaller than MO’s and they did lose a seat. MO will lose a seat because it’s not growing very quickly, and that’s a good thing b/c the only way to grow quickly today is through Hispanic immigration and procreation. Hardly any in MO outside of Southwest MO.
Now how will MO be divided up among 8 districts? It will depend on who runs the General Assembly after the 2010 elections. Currently, the Republicans have a vetoproof majority in the Senate and a comfy lead in the House. Rs picked up 3 Senate seats in 2008 in spite of the fact that it was a Democrat year, and in spite of McCain’s barely winning MO. If 2010 is a halfway decent R year overall, the House and Senate will stay Republican.
That said, I think they’re going to make life easier for Clay and spite Carnahan. Mainly because Russ Carnahan’s sister, Mrs. Antolinez, will be running up against (and defeating IMHO) Roy “Bugs Bunny” Blunt to replace Kit Bond in the Senate in 2010, and this would be their way to spite the Carnahan World Empire. But on race, the Republicans in the G.A. are nadless; it would not be hard to pass a Connery initiative into law by legislation, even if Nixon vetoes, it could be overwritten. But the point is don’t expect such nadless people to turn right around and hurt Clay or Cleaver.
Question Diversity
Bugs Bunny? (Ha ha!) I haven’t heard that one yet. Please explain the nickname.
exkc:
Because Roy Blunt looks the part.
Mel Hancock was a stand-up guy. A lot of people I know want to dump on him b/c he voted for NAFTA, mainly because the farm bureaus tricked him. But at least he had the sense to turn around after a few years of its failure to co-sponsor HR 499 to repeal NAFTA. The farm bureaus wanted NAFTA because of the open borders and cheap labor, that’s all.
Why I think Mrs. Antolinez will win is this — Except for Matt in 2004, the Blunts don’t have very good luck in winning statewide. As it is, you can see how well the one term as Governor that Matt Blunt won worked out, it was so bad that he fell on his sword and decided not to try for another term. In contrast, the Carnahans are not to be denied in this state. How in the Hades Jean Carnahan lost in 2002 to Talent is beyond me.
Roy Blunt was in the thick of the Jack Abramoff/Tom DeLay circus and racket that the later years of the Republican-run U.S. House became. That alone will sink him vs any Democrat, but especially a Carnahan.
I call Mrs. Antolinez that b/c a few summers ago, she got “married” to some South American diplomat with that surname. I only read about it in one place, and that was a slight blurb in the Post-Dispatch. I don’t even know if the Star had it over in KC. Nevertheless, she certainly did not jettison her politically advantageous maiden name. There is a theory that the “marriage” is a front to cover up a certain lifestyle choice on her part. This isn’t San Francisco, after all.
